Chapter 751: Giant Pipeline
“…What now? Are we supposed to jump all the way across?”
Colt asked nervously.
“It’s fine, the gaps aren’t that wide… You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”
Lin Ye picked up Ephesus and jumped directly onto the ground one meter away.
“I just don’t like high places.”
Colt glanced at the void below and felt his legs go weak.
“Then I’ll go first.”
Wen Luo followed suit, leaping to the next patch of ground. As long as she didn’t look down, she was fine.
Following the route on his map, Lin Ye jumped across patches of ground of varying sizes. These surfaces were at different heights, so he needed to observe the distant ground first and plan a suitable path. If they took the wrong route, they’d have to backtrack.
Some surfaces at different heights were easy to descend but hard to return to.
“That patch of ground doesn’t seem right.”
Ephesus, cradled in Lin Ye’s arms, suddenly spoke up.
“Fake ground too? Are there more wrong surfaces ahead? How far can you see?”
Lin Ye needed to plan ahead.
Ephesus began pointing out the abnormal surfaces to Lin Ye. Some nearby abnormal surfaces, once pointed out, simply drifted away like fish.
After eliminating those abnormal surfaces, Lin Ye quickly planned an action route. He dashed across the discontinuous patches of ground rapidly, while Wen Luo and Colt could only speed up, struggling to keep pace behind him.
After testing, the route proved correct. Lin Ye smoothly found the next entrance, located on a patch of ground less than three square meters.
Standing at the edge of the entrance, Lin Ye guided the others behind him. Suddenly, Ephesus let out a startled cry:
“There’s something down there! Something huge! Hurry over!”
Lin Ye glanced downward and saw a gray-white smiling face with a diameter of several hundred meters.
It was a giant aggregate composed of ground and walls. The massive smiling face was rising, and its expression shifted subtly.
As if it had noticed them.
“Just run straight over! Don’t stop, and don’t look down! Think about the person you’re looking for!”
Lin Ye shouted loudly to Colt, who was following behind Wen Luo.
“Get in first!”
Colt sprinted across the discontinuous ground. Fear was a necessary emotion, but when needed, humans could cast it aside.
The giant smiling face rose quickly, devouring large amounts of ground. But Lin Ye’s route was smooth enough that Colt managed to leap into the entrance just before the face closed in.
The world flipped, and Lin Ye landed on a dock built from white blocks.
That small boat was tied right beside the dock.
“Time to board.”
Lin Ye pulled Colt, who was lying on the ground, to his feet. He didn’t know what the giant pipeline connected to, nor what was coming after him, but it was time to deal with the problem here.
“Damn, I don’t like heights, and I don’t like the sea either.”
Colt’s limbs felt weak.
“There are… things inside.”
Ephesus stared at the clear water, grabbing Lin Ye’s protective suit sleeve.
“It’s fine. This should be the right path.”
Lin Ye glanced at the Little Treant, noticing it had stopped wriggling and seemed listless.
“Is this boat really okay?”
Wen Luo looked uneasily at the small white wooden boat floating in the water. She felt like this thing shouldn’t be out at sea.
“It’s fine… probably.”
Lin Ye untied the rope from the dock and jumped onto the boat. The small wooden boat wobbled, and it took him a moment to stabilize it.
“Am I going to break it?”
After Ephesus and Wen Luo boarded, Colt carefully stepped onto the center of the little wooden boat.
The boat sank a bit but held Colt’s weight.
Lin Ye began rowing. As a veteran driver, he was skilled with various modes of transportation.
The small boat zipped across the sea. If he didn’t have to watch out for the water, Lin Ye could have rowed even faster.
Colt initially wanted to help, but he quickly realized that with his rowing skills, he’d only mess things up for Lin Ye.
The giant pipeline was far from the shore. Lin Ye rowed for twenty minutes before approaching it.
Thump!
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!
Suddenly, a rapid series of knocks sounded against the boat’s bottom. Numerous shadows appeared in the seawater, with more approaching from the distance.
Some of the shadows pounded against the oars, trying to hinder their movement.
But they didn’t affect Lin Ye at all. He even used the impact to conserve energy while rowing.
“What now? Should we shoot?”
Colt pulled out a light machine gun from his duffel bag, ready to fire into the sea.
“No. Pour a bag of pale yellow powder into the water, but don’t stick your hand out of the boat.”
Lin Ye kept rowing. Unlike in the lighthouse, these shadows seemed unable to leave the water, or perhaps they couldn’t attack things inside the cabin.
“Got it!”
Wen Luo took a bag of pale yellow powder from the duffel bag and carefully poured it into the seawater.
The shadows immediately gathered near the powder, ceasing their assault on the boat.
Lin Ye sped up his rowing. The small wooden boat smoothly sailed into the sea area where the giant pipeline was located.
Massive amounts of seawater were being sucked into the giant pipeline, and the small boat rode this suction, quickly closing in.
“What the hell is this thing…”
Wen Luo looked up. The pipeline’s diameter was over ten thousand meters. Compared to it, the little boat was like a tiny insect.
“Looks like part of some drainage system.”
Lin Ye studied the pipeline’s structure, but he couldn’t understand the function of those components.
“But isn’t it sucking water in?”
Ephesus asked, puzzled.
“That’s because it’s not running. If it started now, we’d be dead.”
Lin Ye could imagine the force of this giant thing in operation. Even without considering what it expelled, the kinetic energy alone would obliterate them.
“…Is Little Black really inside? And the person the uncle is looking for? Can they even get into a place like this?”
Ephesus couldn’t help voicing the doubts she’d had earlier.
“Sorry… I don’t know. But I’ll complete the commission.”
Lin Ye felt this might be connected to his own trouble. Otherwise, those people couldn’t possibly have reached such a place alive.
“Then let’s go in and take a look. We’ve come this far anyway.”
Wen Luo said in a light tone.
She actually had no memory of the person they were looking for and had only come here on impulse. But none of that mattered now—she had to find that person and leave this place together.
“Exactly. I have to see inside, or I really won’t be able to let it go.”
Colt held his light machine gun, staring into the depths of the pipeline.